Naruto: Will of the Shinobi
by Dr. Darric
Summary: After a life altering and crippling event, can the young Namikaze heir live up to everyone's expectations or will he fall short? Features AU and powerful Choji, Konohamaru, and Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, just the plot and the OCs

All right! I'm finally back to writing! I hope you all enjoy this updated first chapter. I'll hopefully push out the second chapter sooner than I expect, but be somewhat patient, please! Once again, I'm going to change some of the ages of characters to fit my liking. Just a fair warning. Enjoy the read and happy holidays!

Chapter 1

Ah, it was truly a beautiful night. The atmosphere just seemed perfect. It was slightly cloudy, but not so cloudy as to cover up the moon completely, and there were gentle winds flowing around, pushing their light breezes throughout the large village of Konohagakure no Sato. Those still outside were thoroughly enjoying the beautiful weather that the Kami had been so great to bless them with, but there was a small group of people inside of a safe house about 5 miles away from the Hokage mansion that were sitting on edge. This weather was not helping them at all with their situation. The only thing that would be able to ease their troubled minds would be the news of success. And why would the news of success ease their minds, one might ask. Well, it is quite simple. For this group of jōnin were assigned to the task of watching the Hokage's son, Naruto Namikaze, as the Hokage's wife was giving birth to the second heir to the Namikaze clan.

The young blond was so excited and was literally bouncing around. Any moment now, he knew that his mother would deliver his new baby brother to him and he made a promise to his father and his mother that he would be the best big brother in the whole village! That he would take care of him and teach him his studies and take him out for ramen and everything that his parents had done for him! Some of the people assigned to watch him were smiling at the young boy's antics.

"I can't wait, I can't wait!" little Naruto squeaked out. "Ka-chan is going to give me the bestest little brother ever and we are going to spend so much time together!"

This small outburst caused more of the jōnin watching over him to smile even more. But almost immediately, their smiles faltered as they began to assess the situation again. It was strange. For some odd reason, Minato Namikaze thought that his wife's seal would fail during her trails of labor this time around. They had to set up extra precautions so that the village would be safe and, more importantly, that Naruto would be safe. Naruto was just about to squeak something else out when something grabbed everyone's attention in the small safe house.

A mighty and feral roar rattled out from the distance that sent shivers down everyone's bones, signaling that something had went very wrong with the pregnancy and somehow the Kyūbi had been released from its vessel. Immediately after the roar had faded, a large orange-red paw slammed down on a building rather close to those protecting Naruto. They were all about to panic, but their duty as shinobi of the Leaf kept them sated. But for how long? Who could tell? The Kyūbi was now within the confines of the village. Several of the jōnin were getting ready to leave the safe house to valiantly risk their lives to protect the village from this monster, but an elderly man appeared in the door way of the house, facing all of the people inside. Wearing all black with his customary war helmet and black and yellow pole, Hiruzen Sarutobi had a very serious look on his face as he glanced at everyone's face in the room.

"You all, stay here within the safe house!" the man shouted, turning his back on all of them. "This is not your battle. This is for the older generation to push through. If we are to lay down our lives this day, then it us up to you all to keep the Will of Fire burning stronger than ever in future generations."

"But, pops..." a tan skinned shinobi tried to speak up, feeling he was ready to take on the beast.

"Asuma, listen to your father," the old man said coolly, not turning back around to look at them. "I have a feeling that you all will follow, anyways, so I apologize in advance."

The old man made a ram hand sign and all of those within the safe house began to nod off, and within 10 seconds, they were all asleep.

"_We must not have any unnecessary casualties today," _the old man said to himself as he steeled himself for battle and Shunshined unto the battlefield, preparing to take on the Kyūbi by himself.

As soon as the old man was out of sight, a figure wearing a mask with a flame pattern and a black jumpsuit appeared within the safe house, materializing out of a vortex. His long, spiky black hair waved behind him as the vortex whipped it around. "Hm...where is the child..." he spoke out loud in a deep, gravelly voice. As soon as his eyes spotted a peacefully sleeping Naruto, a vortex appeared from the mask's solitary eye hole and Naruto disappeared from sight.

"_This will only take a moment,"_ he thought to himself as he too retreated into his own eye hole.

The two of them appeared in a large chamber that seemed to be underground, due to all of the roots that were growing from the ceiling. The man carried the young Naruto over to a medical bench and began to get to work, pulling out two small containers, one glowing with a low, purple light and the other glowing with an angry, red light. He pulled out his scalpels and started the process and he almost messed up gravelly as someone else entered the room.

"Starting already, are we?" the other figure asked. He was dressed in the same clothing as the first, but he was wearing a different mask, his with a spiral pattern. His hair was short and spiky, but a very fierce red that most individuals have never seen.

"Yeah, unfortunately, I'm starting now," he responded, continuing the process. "The sooner we accomplish this, the earlier he will get everything that is needed."

"Chances are, he is probably going to need much more than what we are giving him, now that we have interfered," the red haired man spoke.

"What do you mean?" the man working on young Naruto stopped and turned around to face his ally.

"Well, since we aren't from here, we have probably already screwed everything that is going to happen. Or rather, everything that happened to us, won't happen to him," the red head stated, beginning to pace. "You can already see it as well, can't you? Even today. Today of all days! This was the day that he was supposed to be made into who he was. He was supposed to overcome the troubles of being bound to a demon to become a strong man. But it seems we've already fucked all of that up."

"Hm..." the black haired man pondered. "Maybe it's this single incident and everything else will stay the same. It has been known to happen. We've been doing this for a long, long time and we've seen different results."

"That is true. Well, hurry up and finish here. I have to go to the battlefield soon and assist them all. If I'm too late, then this one will grow up without parents again."

"All right, go on ahead. It shouldn't take me much longer. Good luck."

The red haired man smiled behind his mask. "As if I need it." He then disappeared in a bright flash of red light and left the black haired man alone as he continued on with his work.

Hiruzen Sarutobi appeared out of a great cloud of smoke and was now standing on top of one of the tallest buildings in Konoha, but the Kyūbi was still towering over him. He telepathically communicated with Enma and the pole extended and he swung it upright, catching the giant fox in the chin and sending it flying upwards. The impact of the pole on the beast's chin vibrated down and Hiruzen could feel it in his old bones as he winced a little and watched the massive demon fall unto its back.

"Getting pretty old, eh, Sensei?" Hiruzen looked to his left and saw one of his students standing beside him. His stark white hair was tied back in his ponytail and he was already prepared for battle, having orange markings around his eyes.

"Mastered Sage Mode, have you? Good to see you're still training, knucklehead," Hiruzen laughed briefly with his past student.

"Sorry for being late, Sensei," a feminine voice sounded from his right and he looked to see another of his students now standing beside him. "We would have been here much sooner if this gaki could have resisted temptation."

"Hey, all that matters is that we're both here now," Jiraiya told her, his orange eyes focusing on the fox that was now climbing back on its feet. "These beasts never fail to amaze me. That seal took a lot of work to contain this thing and he just goes and breaks it. I can probably get it back into a vessel, we just have to contain it first and get it away from the village. I don't want any random people sealed away along with it."

Hiruzen nodded at Jiraiya and let his Adamantine Staff return to normal size. "Before we can get him away from the village and seal him, we must first weaken him with our strength."

Jiraiya and Tsunade both nodded as the two of them bit into their thumbs, drawing blood and slamming down their hands onto the roof they were all standing on. Pouring out as much chakra as they could, large black circles began to appear beneath them. **"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" **the both shouted as two large plums of smoke appeared around them.

When the smoke cleared, two large creatures standing side by side. One was a white slug and the other was a toad with battle scars marking its body. Though the two of them were not the same size as Kyūbi, they were both abnormally large.

"What's the situation, Tsunada-sama?" Katsuyu asked, awaiting for her summoners reply.

"The Nine-tails is out and about, wreaking some havoc. I need you to go around the village and see if there are any people that are injured and I need you to get them to a safe area and take care of them," Tsunade told her summon as strange symbols began to stream out from the rhombus on her forehead.

"Hai!" the giant slug replied, suddenly bursting into several hundred slugs and scattering around the ground floor of the village.

"It's good to see that you're getting serious," Jiraiya quipped with her as he saw her chakra levels dramatically increase.

"Only my best for the Kyūbi," she smirked at him.

"Ah, Kyūbi," the massive toad boss spoke out to the demon, taking a long drag from his pipe. "It has been too long. Let's go, Jiraiya!"

Before Jiraiya could reply, Gamabunta shot up into the sky with his powerful legs and landed unto the fox's back, knocking him back into the ground as it just stationed itself on his feet. The Kyūbi roared out in annoyance rather than pain as it swung one of its tails from underneath Gamabunta and slapped him away, sending the giant toad flying. Once righted, the toad boss jumped back to demon, the fox being ready this time. He was about to slice Gamabunta into pieces until Hiruzen struck its paw his staff, a sharp crack reverberating throughout the village that most people felt rather than heard. The fox roared out in agony as it felt the bones in its paw and leg snap, but it quickly began to heal itself, but not quickly enough to defend itself from Jiraiya's attack.

Jiraiya was flying though the air with a small blue sphere or chakra in his hand and as soon as it touched the top of the Kyūbi's head, he shouted, **"Ch****ōōdama Rasengan!" **The small sphere immediately expanded and before the fox knew it, he was being driven into the ground again. Only this time, he did not have enough time to roar out as Tsunade jumped over to it and slammed her outstretched fist into the side of the fox's jaw. The sound that resulted was that of a meteor landing and the fox was sent flying away over the Hokage monument.

"Great job, you two!" Hiruzen shouted, proud of his two students. He was about to follow up on his praise when a bright yellow flash of light appeared beside him, revealing the Yondaime Hokage with his cloaked ripped up and burned slightly.

"All of you, grab on to me!" he shouted as Jiraiya and Tsunade approached him, both of them grabbing onto his cloak with Hiruzen doing the same. The four of them all disappeared in a flash of yellow light and appeared above the Kyūbi.

Minato dove down to the demon and grabbed its fur and told them all to do the same. In a flash of light that marveled the brightness of the moon the 5 of them were all gone, leaving a very chaotic village behind.

The four shinobi appeared in a large clearing that was surrounded by thousands of large trees that looked as if they were there for millennia. The trees easily towered over all of those that were present. The only things within the clearing other than Minato and company was a wooden table and an alter and above the alter was a massive red torii. Laying down upon the table was a woman with the most peculiar shade of red hair that has blessed this land and a small baby, wrapped up in a bundle of blankets. The woman had a look of pain on her face as blood was slipping out of the corners of her mouth and her blouse was getting soaked with her blood from the ripped seal on her abdomen.

"Kushina!" Tsunade yelled, immediately dashing over to the woman, preparing to take some vitals.

"Do you have a seal for this, Jiraiya sensei?" Minato asked as he watched the Kyūbi get back to its feet and shake its head of cobwebs. "We need to hurry up and seal this thing."

"Of course, I can seal this. We just need Kushina up and about to so that she can help us seal this demon once again."

As soon as the Kyūbi was back to its normal state, he opened his maw and began to gather extremely dense, black chakra in front of his face. The gathering of chakra stopped as Hiruzen slapped the demon in the face with his Adamantine Staff.

"Tsunade! We're running out of time! Are you almost done?" Hiruzen shouted, preparing to attack the Kyūbi once again.

"Finished!" Tsunade exclaimed, leaping away from Kushina and placing a powerful punch between the Kyūbi's eyes, knocking the giant fox backwards.

"Kushina, we need to-" Hiruzen started, but suddenly a bright flash of red light appeared in their midst and they all stopped to stare at this strange new figure.

He was standing at about 6 feet and he wore a simple black jumpsuit. On his face was a mask with the same spiral pattern as the man that Minato had recently battled against, but the color of the mask was an extremely bright white, as if the mask itself was glowing. On top of his head was short, spiky red hair that pointed in all directions. His right arm had a gauntlet attached to it that started at the tips of his fingers and traveled up just past his elbow. He looked up the Kyūbi and a escaped from behind his mask.

"We cannot use Kushina as another vessel to seal this fox within. Doing so will ultimately cause her death and, unfortunately, the released energy from the death of the fox will be enough to destroy everything and kill everyone within Hi no Kuni," the man spoke in a gravelly tone. "We need a new vessel for the fox. We must use a child."

Kushina placed her arms around her new born baby and was getting ready to protest when the Kyūbi roared and began to charge at the new figure, the man looking extremely uninterested. He raised his hand with the gauntlet and jumped up so he was even with the fox's maw, and he punched the fox once, black chakra exploding from his fist and impact the fox. The Kyūbi fell crumpled to the ground, its red fur smoking and sizzling. Everyone was staring in awe at what this man just did.

"Quickly. We need to use that child."

Kushina started to cry, looking down at her baby until Minato walked over to her, wrapping her in his arms. "This is really the only way and only thing we can do, Kushina. The only way we can protect everyone and the village." He looked down at his new child as tears began to spring from his eyes.

"How do you know that we can trust him? We don't even know this man!" Kushina sobbed to her husband.

"It's just something about him. He feels very...light." That was the only explanation that Minato had, but Kushina knew that he was right, so she reluctantly passed along her baby to Minato as the two of them walked up to the man.

All of those present made their way over to the alter, Minato placing the baby on top of it. He looked back to the man and nodded to him before the man nodded back.

The man quickly dashed to the Kyūbi and performed hand seals faster anyone there could follow.

"_Who is this man?" _Minato thought to himself.

"**Tajū Mugen Hōyō!" **the man shouted and a purple barrier shot up around the Kyūbi and it started to scream as it felt its chakra being drained.

The man then went perfectly still for about 10 seconds before performing two hands seals. "**Senpō: Myōjinmon!"**

A dozen massive red torii fell from the sky, pinning the giant fox to the ground and once the fox was completely pinned, he removed the first barrier from the demon, needing the fox's chakra to complete the sealing process.

"Kushina! Chakra Chains!" the main shouted and Kushina nodded. Random golden chains began to pour forth from both of their bodies and wrap themselves around the Kyūbi, pinning it even further.

The man then charged forward again, small purple flames coating the five digits of his gauntled hand. As soon as he was in striking distance of the fox, he lashed out at it again. **"Gogyō Fūin!" **

He then began to wave his arms in random motions as a strand of the fox's chakra connected to him and he quickly ran over to the baby that was sleeping peacefully on the alter, placing his hands on the infant.

"**Shishō Fūin!" **Immediately the form of the Kyūbi started to waver and it became pure orange chakra as it began to flow through the man into the small bundle. It seemed to have taken an eternity as the bystanders watched with wide, anxious eyes as this single man tackled the feat of sealing the demon fox all by himself.

As soon as all of its chakra was within the baby, he slapped his hand onto the baby again and shouted, **"Hakke no Fūin Shiki!" **A spiral pattern appeared on the baby's small stomach. But he was not yet finished.

His fingers were once again covered in flames, but these flames were blue instead of purple. He slapped his hand into the baby's stomach and twisted while calmly saying, **"Gogyō Kaiin." **

A sound like a massive gate crashing shut sounded out and the baby then began to cry. Kushina and Minato rushed over to check on their child, seeing the same spiral seal that was once on its mother. Kushina brought her child to her neck and turned to the mysterious man, a thousand questions ready to explode from hers and everyone's mouths.

"I have no answers for your questions, or rather...I will not answer them. There is far too much at stake if I were to speak too much," the man told them all before turning his back to them. "Just remember to take care of your child and give both of your children the lives that they both deserve and I'm sure that not only they, but the world will be thankful. And really take care of that boy. He will be the savior of this world and he needs a family to get him there." Minato and Kushina both looked excited by this last statement and were ready to ask him things even though he said he would not answer, but the man simply vanished from sight, leaving nothing behind.

Minato and Kushina both looked at their newborn child and smiled at each other. "Come on," Minato told his wife, "let's get you to the hospital."

A small, black vortex opened up and man dressed in a black jumpsuit stepped out of it, carrying a small blond boy in his arms. He walked back over to the empty spot where he first picked the boy up and laid him down there.

"There. No one will know the difference for awhile to come," the man smiled at his handiwork. "Let's just hope that he is easy enough to persuade this time around..."

He saw the bodies in the room beginning to stir, showing that the genjutsu Hiruzen had placed on them was beginning to wear off so he just faded away, moving back to his base without a sound.

Asuma and Kurenai were the first ones to wake up, with Kakashi and Gai following directly after them.

"Damn that old man!" Asuma shouted slightly angry. "We were more than ready to protect this village, to prove ourselves as shinobi, and he just goes and puts us all to sleep!"

"If you could not resist a simple genjutsu, what makes you think you could take on the Kyūbi?" an entertained voiced asked him as Asuma turned around the see his father walking into the safe house. "You must have forgotten your mission here. Your mission was to protect the Hokage's son. Nothing more, nothing less. You have all accomplished your mission and this will be going unto your mission records tomorrow morning." Hiruzen walked over to the still sleeping Naruto and scooped him up gently.

"Where are you taking little Naruto-kun to?" Kurenai asked the old man.

"I'm taking him to the hospital to see his parents and his new sibling. I know how excited he was, so it would be best not to disappoint the boy. He'll wake up happy knowing that he is an older brother," Hiruzen replied, smiling at the teenaged girl before slowly walking away from the group of young jōnin.

"You know, as much as I hate suggest this," Kakashi started, getting to his feet, "maybe we should go around the village, offering help to those that need it."

"What a splendid idea, Kakashi! Let us let the villagers know that we will be for them through thick and thin!" Maito Gai shouted in an excited voice, earning glares from everyone except Kakashi.

"Aw! Look at little Akiko!" Jiraiya squealed, poking the sleeping girl's nose.

"Jiraiya," Minato grumbled out quietly, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Quiet down, will you? Her and my wife are both sleeping."

Tsunade stifled a laugh at the white haired man's antics, but stopped what she was doing to turn to the door as it was opening, revealing a small, blond boy with deep blue eyes walking into the room. She smiled at the kid as he walked over and threw his arms around his father's legs.

"Otō-san! Are you all right?" Naruto asked, looking up at his father's clothing and seeing all of the tears, singe marks, and dried blood that was caking his skin.

"Oh, yes, yes. I'm fine, little one. Nothing to worry about," Minato flashed his son a smile. "But come with me. Would you like to see your little sister?"

Naruto started to nod his head vigorously up and down as his father smiled and placed a finger to his lips, signaling to the young boy to be quiet. They walked over to a small crib and inside was a small girl with short blond hair. Naruto felt his heart cry with happiness as he looked on into the crib, realizing that he was now an older brother. He reached into the crib and stroked his new sister's cheek and her eyes slowly opened and locked onto Naruto's. She was staring at him curiously and he honestly felt that this was the happiest moment in his short life.

Minato walked over to Jiraiya and Tsunade and quickly got serious. "It's going to be tough to deal with the elders with this. They're really going to want to know what happened to the Kyūbi and I can't just tell them that we sealed it into Akiko."

"Things do spread around rather quickly, but don't you worry. We'll keep the secret to ourselves!" Jiraiya declared, getting a smile from his former student and a sigh from his former teammate.

Translation:

**Kuchiyose no Jutsu! - Summoning Technique!**

**Chōōdama Rasengan! - Ultra Big Ball Spiralling Sphere!**

**Tajū Mugen Hōyō! - Multiple Infinite Embraces!**

**Senpō: Myōjinmon! - Sage Art: Gate of the Great God!**

**Gogyō Fūin! - Five Elements Seal!**

**Shishō Fūin! - Four Symbols Seal!**

**Hakke no Fūin Shiki! - Eight Trigrams Sealing Style!**

**Gogyō Kaiin. - Five Elements Unseal.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It has been around 6 months since the Kyūbi incident and things could not be going better within the Namikaze household. Kushina was recovering well from her pregnancy, a majority of her baby weight having disappeared and Minato was still working hard at the office, showing all other countries that even though the Kyūbi had destroyed a fraction of their village that they were still as strong as ever. Konohagakure still had its place at the top of the shinobi world. And Naruto...sweet Naruto. At first, when the baby was brought home from the hospital, the young blond was pretty wary about it all. Of course he was excited to be a big brother, but he thought that all of his parents' would be focused on his new sister. But it was not! Sure, his mom spent a lot of time with Akiko, but now all three of them went for walks together and Naruto got to show the little girl all of his favorite places like the park and Ramen Ichiraku. But there was still some random pieces of jealousy coming from Naruto, but it was unjust on his part, since his mother would still wake him up, still made him his favorite ramen and sandwiches (with crust cut off, of course!), and they even still went to visit his father together. And even though he was pretty jealous, you could tell that the young Namikaze was absolutely in love with his baby sister. He was actually the only who could feed the young girl anything without getting mushy food spit up unto his face. It was quite adorable, honestly.

Today was going to be such a spectacular day. Randomly throughout the past two years since Minato was chosen as Hokage, he would host large picnics to promote good nature and good feelings between the shinobi population and the civilian population. All were welcome to the picnic, and with an unlimited amount of food and entertainment, whoever turned down such an invitation would be foolish. This so happened to be a special occasion, though. It was a joint operation where donations would be accepted to help those who were either injured during the Kyūbi's onslaught six months previously or just to donate to help rebuild some of the village.

This was going to be Naruto's first time attending the picnic in memory, since the last few times he went he was too lazy to wake up and enjoy them. The young boy was bouncing up and down as he was walking down the street, Kushina to his right and little Akiko in a stroller in front of him. He was bouncing with so much energy, so excited at the prospect of finally meeting some new friends. Not like the civilian children that his mother let him play with on his way to the park, but real children of shinobi, just like him and his parents! He was just bubbling with energy and Kushina could definitely see it, smiling widely at her first born.

"Excited to make some new friends, huh, Naru-chan?" Kushina asked her son, messing up his hair.

Naruto was too excited to speak and just began to nod his head vigorously, causing his mother to chuckle out an airy and light giggle. "Of course, they are! These kids will be amazing, just like you. There will be high chances that they'll be sticking around with through the academy and further in life. Oooh, I wish I had brought my camera with me!" She smiled down at her son and the two kept walking, quickly approaching the large clearing that was used for the picnics.

The arch in front of the clearing had a large banner that read, "Welcome to the 9th Konohagakure Picnic! Welcome to those from other villages and other countries!"

Kushina looked around the clearing to see if she could spot her husband and, true to his word, he was no where to be found. It was up to her to be the hostess this year. She sighed from defeat as she started to walk her way over to Tsunade. She noticed that beautiful blond was talking to a young man with short and messy red hair, wearing a forehead protector that indicated that he was Sunagakure no Sato. He had very sleepy, brown eyes that seemed somewhat lifeless.

"Hello, Tsunade-sama," Kushina told the older woman, the blond woman now smiling at her and little Naruto. "Naru-chan, stay with Tsunade while I get ready to give a speech. Who's your friend?"

"Oh, right. This is Sasori from Sunagakure. One of the finest jōnin to bless Kaze no Kuni," Tsunade introduced her friend.

He stretched out his hand and Kushina took it, feeling how cold his hand was. "Pleasure," he said to her, his voice giving her unnatural chills for reasons unknown.

"Likewise. Now, if you excuse me, I have to give a speech," she told them, shivering internally.

"Hey, little man," Tsunade smiled down at Naruto, giving him a soft noogie. "How have you been? Haven't seen you in awhile."

"I've been okay, Bā-chan. I started reading Otō-san's big books on...on stuff!" Naruto blurted out excitedly, glad that he could finally read some of the larger words in books. "Like something called...cha...chackrah? I think..." Naruto looked really confused, but Tsunade just laughed, bending down and giving the little guy a hug.

Even Sasori's normally stoic face was pulling a small grin. It had been too long since he had felt human.

"Oh, you are just too cute! Already turning into such a strong shinobi just like your father." She picked up Naruto and placed him on her left shoulder and picked up Akiko from her stroller and placed her on her right shoulder, bouncing the two kids around as they laughed with joy.

Tsunade stopped bouncing briefly and looked around, a little concern showing on her face. "Where is that child of mine?" she said under her breath, but Naruto heard her.

"Huh? Did Bā-chan say that she has a child?" Naruto asked the woman curiously.

"What? Oh, yeah, I have myself a little girl now. I found her a couple of months ago. She was related to...someone I knew quite personally, so I kind of feel that taking care of her is my responsibility and that I'm the only one entitled to her, since...her family doesn't really want her...all of the paperwork went through about a month ago," Tsunade finished sheepishly, putting the little boy back unto the ground and Akiko back into her stroller. "I'll go find her and introduce the two of you."

As Tsunade left, Kushina approached Naruto and Akiko with two other women and two other children in tow. One was a woman of medium height, who had long black hair and with equally black eyes. She had a bright smile on her face as she was conversing animatedly with Kushina. She was wearing the standard Konohagakure flak jacket, a black jumpsuit serving as the rest of her clothes, and her forehead protector was placed unto the right breast pocket. On her right shoulder, instead of the standard red spiral, was an odd fan shaped object that Naruto had never recognized. Walking to her right was a boy around the same age as Naruto. He had short black hair with bangs that bordered his face and his eyes were just as black as his mother's. He wore a simple black t-shirt and grey pants that stopped just above his ankles. The other woman was full-bodied and was rather tall, but gave off an atmosphere that she was the most kind and caring woman that you would ever meet. Her hair was really short and black, her eyes matching. But she had orange markings on the sides of her eyes, accentuating them. She had on a light shade of red lipstick and red stud earrings. Just like the previous woman, she had on an open flak jacket due to her bulky size and underneath, she had on a light armor, with the _shoku _printed on the front in red. To her left was a small, but chubby boy around the same age as Naruto, but this one had spiky brown hair and swirls on both of his cheeks. He had the same black eyes as his mother. He was wearing a long sleeved shirt, the top half being an extremely light green while the bottom half was a deep forest green. He wore black shorts and black sandals.

"All right, now, Mikoto, Chiharu, the both of you remember my little Naru-chan," Kushina spoke to the two women, leaning down and giving her son a small cuddle. "And this is Akiko, mommy's chīsai tenshi!" She picked up Akiko and gave a cuddle as well, the little girl giggling from the attention. She placed Akiko on her hip and turned back to Naruto. "I brought them over here, Naru-chan, so that they could introduce you to their children and all of you could run off and play."

The larger woman, Chiharu, stepped up first, her little son following her motions. "Naru-chan, this is my Chōji." She moved her chubby son in front of her and placed her hands on is shoulders.

"Nice to meet you, Chōji!" Naruto said excitedly, smiling unnaturally wide.

"Nice to meet you, too, Naruto," the little boy replied, smiling softly.

Next up was Mikoto. "And this, little Naruto, is Itachi. I've been dying for the two of you to meet, but...well, here you are!" she said, pushing her son out in front of her.

"Nice to meet you, Naruto-san," Itachi said, taking the formal route and bowing to Naruto.

Naruto just wrinkled his nose at the boy. "Ewww, don't call me -san just yet! I'm not ready for that!" Naruto cried, making the adults laugh at the boy's antic. "Just Naruto, please." Naruto stuck his hand out, and Itachi grabbed it, the two boys shaking hands briefly. "Wanna play tag?" Naruto asked and the two boys nodded, Naruto touching Itachi and then him and Chōji running away from the young Uchiha rather nimbly.

"That's a really beautiful boy you've got there, Kushina," Chiharu told the red haired woman. "He's so full of energy and life. I think him and Chōji are really going to hit it off. Chōji really needs it."

"The same goes with Itachi," Mikoto threw in. "His father had been getting extremely strict lately. Ever since he has noticed Itachi's natural ability, he has been distancing both himself and Itachi away from the rest of the clan, focusing solely on his training. His regiment is so strict that Itachi almost has his Shurikenjutsu down perfectly."

"Wow! Are you serious? That's really impressive," Kushina started, but was interrupted by Mikoto.

"But he doesn't give him the time of day to meet anyone. The only one in our clan who goes out of their way to talk to him, who is really his only friend, is Shisui, but even that seems somewhat forced..."

Just then, Tsunade came running up the women with a little girl with short black hair riding on her shoulders. "Hey, Kushina, where did Naruto run off to? I want to introduce him to Shizune."

Kushina looked around and saw her son and his two new friends talking with Hiruzen, his grandson and an extended family member of the Sarutobi clan. "Seems he's over there with your sensei, making even more friends," Kushina told the woman, pointing off in the direction of Hiruzen.

Tsunade muttered out a thank you before running off in the direction that was just mentioned.

* * *

"Ah, so, this is Chōji," Hiruzen stated, smiling down at the children. "How you remind me of your father. I remember it was just like yesterday when I presented your father and his teammates with their earrings. Hopefully soon, you too will also receive your earring." Hiruzen extended his hand and shook the little boy's hand. He then placed his hand on a boy's shoulder who was standing next to him and a small blond girl who standing there as well. "This is my grandson, Konohamaru. He is the first child of my eldest daughter, Hanako. And this here is Shiho. She's a rather young niece of mine. Konohamaru, Shiho, this is Naruto, Chōji, and Itachi. Why don't you all go and play somewhere."

They all nodded and smiled at each other and just before they were about to run off, Tsunade approached them with a girl around their age riding on her shoulders. "Hey, guys, don't you all run off just yet! I want to put a new member in your little gang!" Tsunade picked the girl up and plopped her unto her feet in front of the small group of children, all of them looking each other up and down. "This here is Shizune Katō. She wants to play with you all, but she's pretty shy."

"Tsunaaaadeee," the little girl whined as her cheeks took on a bright shade of red. This caused Tsunade to chuckle.

"Oh, you know I'm only teasing. Now, go off and play. Have fun!"

The kids all looked at each before dashing off in a single direction, heading over towards a small stream on the opposite side of the clearing.

* * *

"So, Shizune," Naruto started, placing his now bare feet into the shallow end of the stream as he sat down. "What's it like having Bā-chan as a mommy? I would think it would be a lot of noogies and a lot of cuddles."

"Well, it's not too bad. She can be really strict, but she is a kind and a pretty mom," Shizune replied, smiling warmly at her new friend.

"I like Chōji's mom!" Konohamaru piped up.

"Yeah," Shiho agreed. "She's huge! I bet she could beat up jiji!"

"I wouldn't doubt that," Chōji said. "I remember a few weeks ago, dad made a joke about her cooking and she threw him through two walls. My dad is bigger than she is..."

This caused all of the other kids to laugh and clutch their stomachs, tears threatening to spill out of their eyes. Konohamaru sobered up first and decided to ask them all a question.

"Have any of you started ninja training yet? Jiji started training me and Shiho in chakra control about a month ago, but it's hard."

Itachi nodded. "It is pretty hard, but I think I've almost gotten it down. What about you three?"

"Well, Tsunade has been teaching me the beginning of medical techniques, so yeah, a bit," Shizune replied.

Naruto and Chōji both looked at each other before looking back at the other three and shaking their heads 'no'.

"You haven't?!" Konohamaru practically screamed, standing up in the stream. "Well, let's get you started then!"

He got out of the stream and started to walk around the area of the stream, occasionally picking up something that both of the boys could not see. "What do you think he's doing?" Chōji whispered to Naruto.

"Beats me."

Konohamaru appeared a moment later with six medium-sized, bright green leaves. With a smile he handed all of them one leaf and keeping one for himself. Almost immediately, Itahci, Shizune, Shiho, and Konohamaru all got very serious as they were attempting something that neither Naruto or Chōji even knew of.

"Hey! What are we supposed to be doing with these?" Naruto asked Konohamaru and the group at large with a hint of irritation in his voice.

"Oh, I forgot how to explain it...hm..." Konohamaru pondered for a moment. "You have to pull the chakra out of you and use it to hold the leaf in place." Konohamaru gave Naruto a triumphant smile before going back to the exercise.

Naruto gave Chōji the most exasperated look. Chakra was still such a foreign idea to him, so he truly had no idea how to bring forth any chakra, in any amount at all. He looked around the picnic until his eyes landed on his father. He saw his father conversing with Jiraiya, Chōza, and Sasori, so he decided that he could ask them all about pulling out chakra and everything important about chakra.

* * *

"Things are getting pretty hectic in Kirigakure these days," Minato told the three men, all of them looking extremely serious. "The civil wars and blood wars in surrounding villages are giving the Mizukage a really hard time. Yagura really wants some back up, but I'm afraid that a civil war isn't our best interest, or even in Suna's best interest. You should probably relay this information to Gōki." Just as he finished, he noticed Naruto and Chōji approaching him quickly. Both boys stopped in front of their fathers, trying to catch their breath before asking a something. "Hey, kid. Made a new friend, I see." Minato smiled down at his son while Chōza was doing the same.

"Otō-san, how do you bring out chakra?" Naruto asked Minato between intakes of oxygen.

Minato looked down at his son with a proud look on his face. _"My boy is already wanting to train to become a shinobi."_

"Well, you already know what chakra is, since we read that book together, so I won't have to explain that, but just think of chakra as a warm sensation in your belly. That's where most of your chakra lives. What you need to do first is concentrate on that warm sensation and when you finally find it, just start pulling it out. So, go ahead and give it a try. The best way to start is to sit in a half lotus position and make the ram seal while concentrating." Minato sat on the ground and demonstrated the position that they would need to sit in and the shape their hands needed to make. "Now, you try."

Naruto and Chōji both nodded before sitting in the same position that they saw Minato sit in and placed their hands in a ram seal. And there they just sat, searching for something, searching for anything! A minute passed, and then five, and then eight. When both of the boys were ready to just give up, they both finally felt something. It was like...a burning in their belly. They snaked and moved around their insides until they could see a faintly glowing blue light. A short tendril of light blue snaked its way into the subconscious and they both grabbed it at the same time.

"-so, anyways, I was telling the girl that I was the son of the Fire Daimyō-" Jiraiya was in the middle of a story when a large gust of wind assaulted the four men standing next to the two boys.

A massive aura of spiky, blue chakra was dancing chaotically around them while wind was being produced from the chakra's erratic movements. Minato, Jiraiya, and Sasori were blown onto their backs while Chōza was nearly knocked off of his feet, firmly planting his feet into the earth. Once the barrage of chakra ended, both Naruto and Chōji opened their eyes, looking at each other and smiling widely, before a massive amount of fatigue struck them.

"Ugh, why am I so tired?" Chōji asked no one in particular.

"Because you just unleashed a large amount of chakra. I'm very proud of you, son," Chōza said to his son, scooping him up and placing him on his shoulders.

"And I'm proud of you, big guy!" Minato laughed at his son, seeing him try to stand up but falling onto his behind. "Come on, let's get you something to eat so we can replenish your chakra."

A/N: I'm going to treat Sasori kind of like an ambassador for now. And Gōki is the name I chose for the Kazekage. Not sure why. Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the read! Happy holidays!


	3. Chapter 3

Here's the latest installment. I hope you all enjoy the read! Any and all criticism or ideas or whatever will help!

Chapter 3

Young Naruto's 7th birthday had only just passed and it was honestly one of the best birthdays and days the young blond has ever experienced (coming right after him meeting his sister for the first time). Of course, both of his parents and younger sister were there, his mother baking him his favorite kind of cakes. There were plenty of chocolate Taiyaki and much more strawberry shortcake. The usual guest were also there: Kakashi, Hiruzen, Jiraiya, and Tsunade. But this time, he had other guest that he was glad were there. Chiharu, Chōza, and Chōji. Mikoto and Itachi. Konohamaru and Shiho came along with his jiji and Shizune came along with Bā-chan. Plus, he got plenty of awesome stuff! More awesome stuff than he ever thought he would get! From Okā-san, he got a beginner's sealing kit. From Otō-san, he received a Hiraishin kunai and a promise that when he thought he was ready, Tō-san would teach him the Hiraishin. From Jiji and Bā-chan, he received 5 scrolls that would help his chakra control more, since "Your control could never be perfect" they told him. He did not receive anything from Kakashi, since it is always a surprise that he manages to show up anywhere. From Jiraiya, he received Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, which he still had not gotten around to read. All of his friends actually saved up and gave Naruto a collective gift. It was a small green frog wallet that they named Gama-chan. Naruto was absolutely delighted and the tears that were threatening to escape his eyes during his present exchanging happened here, running and hugging his best friends. His life could not be going any better.

_Two weeks after Naruto's birthday..._

Naruto was sitting in the middle of his bedroom, seated at his chabudai, being really comfy on his tatami. He decided that now was the best time to begin his training with fūinjutsu, so he got settled in and opened up his beginner's sealing kit. There were several dozen scrolls within the kit, each one marked with a different color. He grabbed the first one that caught his eye and unrolled it in front of him, removing an ink pad and brush from the kit along with it.

"Hm...A Level 1Fire and Exploding Seal," Naruto read off the scroll, slowly reading and taking in all of the instructions that the scroll told him. "Since it's pretty low leveled, it looks like I won't need too much chakra to put into it. It says here that the most difficult thing for any seal are the characters. Hm...I guess I should practice some calligraphy first before trying anything..."

Naruto opened up a blank scroll and pulled his ink pad and brush closer. He pulled up another scroll that was marked with a tan tab, knowing that this one was a scroll showing the basic characters of fūinjutsu. He started first with the kanji for Fire, since that was the basic sealing component for Fire and Exploding seals. Good lord, was his writing sloppy. He made several rows of the character, making sure to take his time with each individual brush stroke. On his 16th time writing the character, his adorable baby sister waddled on into the room with a sippy cup in her hand. She plopped down beside her brother and began to gnaw on the top of her sippy cup, random clicks and clacks sounding out from her mouth. She started to watch him with her large violet eyes, completely entranced with her brother.

Naruto looked up from his handiwork and noticed that his sister was now in his room and he flashed her a bright smile, setting down his brush. "Hey, Akiko. Would you like to color a bit?" he asked the tiny girl, who began to nod her head vigorously.

Naruto smiled at the little girl's actions and grabbed a new, blank scroll and rolled it out in front of her. He looked around his room quickly and saw his old chest. He opened it and found himself a pack of crayons which he handed over to his sister.

"All right, here you go. Don't make too much of a mess now," he told his sister, smiling at her.

"Won't, Naru!" she replied happily, grabbing a yellow crayon with her left hand and placing the sippy cup back into her mouth with her right hand.

Naruto looked back down at the characters he already wrote down and, pleased with his work, he decided that it was now time to officially start work on his very first seal!

Chakra requirements...done. He was in the middle of a brush stroke when Kushina was walking through the doorway. She was about to tell her son that she had made his favorite sandwiches when she noticed that he was in the process of creating a seal, so she did not want to interrupt the process. She just looked on in admiration as her first born was already creating seals at the tender age of 7. A tear jumped to her eye and threatened to spill over as she filled with pride.

A faint red glow from in front of the boy signaled that his seal had been a success and she smiled brightly before fully sweeping into the room, announcing what she was planning to in the first place. She sits down next to him with the biggest smile on her face, laying down the tray of sandwiches and a small bowl of fruits for her daughter. "Hey, Naru-chan. How is your sealing coming along?"

"I just started less than an hour ago, so I'm kind of fuzzy with it. But I hope it all works out for me," he responded to his mother, smiling faintly at her while reaching for a sandwich.

Kushina smiles back at her son and tousles his hair slightly, reaching over to her daughter and taking the sippy cup away from the teething girl. She hands the little blond a grape to gnaw on instead.

Naruto spaces out for a moment, remembering a short conversation he had with his friend, Itachi, about something that his raven-haired friend was learning. He thought it was...Nature control? Nature manipulation? Something along those lines, but whatever it was, it sounded super cool to him, and he really wanted to try it out. He just hoped that his mom and dad would teach him about.

"Hey, Kā-san? What's...nature manipulation?" he asked the beautiful woman slightly skeptically.

She laughs at his small mistake and responds with, "Nature transformation? I'm guessing that you mean specific nature affinities. Well, having an affinity for a specific nature allows a person to use really powerful jutsus within that nature range and there are five natures." She pulled over his scroll with all of the kanji for fire on it and picked up his brush, dipping it in ink. "There is fire, wind, earth, water, and lightning. Chances are when you're ready to find out yours, you'll probably be a Lightning user like your dad or a Water user like me."

"Can I learn now? It sounds fun!" Naruto asked him mom, excitement exploding from his very being.

"I'm sorry, Naruto, but I think it would be best if you waited awhile longer," she told him, feeling kind of bad after seeing his forlorn expression. "It's just that, being at such a young age, it is really dangerous and I don't want you to figure it out and do really reckless things with it. I'm sorry, honey."

She got back up to her feet and stretched a bit, feeling some cracks in her back. "Whew! I'm getting old. Anyways, I'm going to go visit your father at the office, might bring him a lunch since he's in a meeting with...Kumogakure..." Kushina grumbled out, still having an obvious grudge against the capital of Kaminari no Kuni. "Would you like to come along?"

"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" Akiko squealed, bouncing up and down where she sat, causing both her mother and brother to laugh.

Even though Naruto did want to meet the Raikage, he declined the offer, feeling that him practicing his sealing was more important at the moment. Kushina smiles down at her son again and leans down to plant a kiss on top of his slightly messy blond hair. "I love you, Naruto."

An intense warmth filled Naruto to the brim as he looked at his mother. He smiled widely at her and turned around to wrap her in a hug. "I love you, too, Kā-san!"

After Kushina and Akiko leave and Naruto is now free of distractions, he decides that since he got the Level 1 Fire scroll down that he could jump up to something a little more difficult. He grabbed a scroll that had a violet tab on it, showing that it included the instructions for the basic storage scroll.

"_Storage scrolls just so happen to be the most commonly used, most simple, and most beneficial of all scrolls," _Naruto read from the description. _"Depending on the amount of chakra the user places into the scroll upon creating the sealing character (in this case, it is Oku), the user can create a larger dimension for the scroll, being able to store objects up to ~500 pounds."_

Naruto nodded to himself, feeling that these instructions were much more easier than a fire seal and he berated himself slightly for not starting with this one. He pulled back his practice sheet and wrote down the Kanji for "Put" a couple of times before feeling completely comfortable with it. He then grabbed a blank scroll and placed Oku in the middle of it, each brush stroke to perfection. After that was set, he was ready to test out his brand new storage scroll! He looked around his room to find something that he could seal away and he just decided to seal away one of his sandals, since it was relatively close (still attached to his foot). He unstrapped the small, black sandal and placed it in the middle of the open scroll, exhaling a bated breath. In the most powerful voice he could assume, he shouted out, **"F****ū****in!" **A bright white light filled up his room and when it passed, he noticed that his sandal had disappeared.

He had a small celebration, realizing that he just sealed his first object, but quickly realized that he did not know how to retrieve said object. He consulted the beginner's scroll, but the only thing there was a message saying that to learn how to properly retrieve stored objects would be learned at Level 2. Naruto scratched his head with embarrassment upon knowing this, but, thankfully, no one was there to make fun of him for his elementary mistake. He shook his head at himself and decided that he would just ask his mom to teach him how to retrieve stored objects. He got off of his tatami and walked over to his bed, sitting on top of the blankets rather than laying down.

He situated himself into a half lotus position and made the ram sign. He slowed his breathing down to the point where he forgot he was even breathing and the only thing that existed for him for just that moment was a swirling blue mass that appeared within the darkness of his mind. He mentally reached for blue light and saw it snake its way toward him, completely filling the darkness that once surrounded him. Naruto felt a warmth spread throughout his body, completely taking over his entire being. He did not know what caused him to know or be aware of this, but he decided to push his awareness outward. As he felt his chakra leaving his body and expanding, he began to see the world in a different light. Chakra was...everywhere. Everything. Even the most inanimate of objects were made of chakra. It was truly beautiful! Naruto could not believe it!

He decided to continue pushing his awareness outward until he ran into something...it was a person! A living, breathing person! They were literally a beacon of glowing, blue light. Their brightest points were all lined in their torso, except for a large pool in their stomach and two bright points in their head. Something about the person's chakra told him that they were benevolent, that they were just doing everyday deeds. He continued to push his awareness, finding more people and crying inwardly of joy at the beautiful sights their glowing forms brought to him. But then...he ran into something...strange.

There was a dark chakra prowling around. Like...he did not know how or why he could tell, but he knew that the chakra signature was up to no good. He continued to watch the pillar of light, following it as it traveled quickly through the village. Until it just stopped at what appeared to be an open window. Inside of the structure that the figure was looking at was much a smaller pillar of light, surrounded by at least a dozen other pillars of light, each of them benevolent. The small pillar was completely pure and when it happened to notice the other pillar staring at it, its chakra signature flared with fear. The dark chakra signature entered the building and quickly took out the larger chakra signatures, their very being winking out of existence. A shiver ran down Naruto's spine as the large, dark chakra signature walked over to the small one and threw it over his shoulder.

Naruto forced his awareness away and he came zooming back to his body, feeling like he had ran full speed into a brick wall. He sat still for a moment to gain his bearings, noticing that a small trickle of blood had seeped out of his nose and was now touching his upper lip. He wiped the blood away unto his bare forearm and hopped off of the bed and jumped out of his window, completely forgetting about his lack of sandal. He had to move and act fast if he wanted to stop what was happening. Someone was getting kidnapped.

* * *

On his way to the location, Naruto ran into Konohamaru, Shizune, and Itachi. It looked like they were walking to Naruto's house in the first place, so Naruto saw that is was extremely convenient that his friends just so happened to be there. _"The Kami must be smiling down on me today."_

"What's the hurry, kid?" Konohamaru asked Naruto, looking a little worried at the faded blood on his friend's forearm. "Is everything all right?"

"Guys! Guys! We need to get help!" Naruto cried to his friends, all of them flashing him worried looks.

"What's wrong, Naruto-kun?" Shizune asked the rowdy blond.

"A kidnapping! Over there!" he pointed off in the direction that he remembed. "We need to tell my dad or help really quick!" Naruto cried again, preparing to run off in the direction that he just pointed in. But Itachi stopped him.

"You three go off and try to stall the kidnapper. I'm the fastest of all of us, so I'll go warn Hokaga-sama. I'll tell anyone else that is there as well. Be careful," Itachi told them all. With that being said, he practically disappeared, running along the roof tops to get to the Hokage Mansion.

"All right, Naruto. Lead on. We'll follow you and we'll kick this guy's ass!" Konohamaru declared, pumping his fist in the air. Shizune nodded and with that, the three of them were off, running off to whatever situation Naruto was leading them to.

* * *

Luckily for them (or rather unluckily for them) the kidnapper was stalled slightly by rather pale adults with strange symbols on their foreheads. Even though everyone around the kidnapper was dead, it did not look like he was winded at all. The man is slowly walking away from the scene with a little girl with dark blue hair draped over his shoulder.

"Hey! Stop walking!" Konohamaru shouted at the man, causing him to stop in his tracks and the oddly high pitched voice to see what it was.

The kidnapper gets a surprised look on his face and grumbles, obviously a little upset. "Dammit. I thought this would be an easier job. I really don't feel like killing kids today. But if I have to to please the Raikage, then so be it."

The man set the little girl down and to the side, preparing to fight these three kids. He pulls out a black, double sided katana and smiles at the kids as he runs some electricity through the already dangerous blade. He placed a feral grin unto his face and charged towards the kids, immediately jumping backwards as Konohamaru through a single shuriken towards him before performing a couple of hand seals in seconds.

"**Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"** The single shuriken Konohamaru chucked towards the man multiplied into 25 in a split second. He held up his charged weapon and batted away all of the projectiles, smiling somewhat sadistically at the kids.

"_These kids aren't too bad," _the man thinks to himself as he gets ready to charge at them again. Even though this one kid could do something pretty admirable, he could tell that none of these kids had any formal training, so he smiled in delight that he would be able to dispatch of them rather quickly. Without even performing any hand seals, a clone pops up beside him and runs straight for them. Just when the clone is within 3 feet of them, it expands and Naruto grabs Shizune to pull the girl back around a corner, Konohamaru following immediately, as the clone explodes into a large bubble of excited electricity, sparks and bolts flying off.

Naruto was going to think of a way to get out of there alive, but the man appeared around the corner, that evil smile still plastered on his face as he swings his sword in their direction. Konohamaru is the first to move this time, jumping out of the way with Naruto following, the blond pulling Shizune out of the way again. They try to distance themselves away from the man, but stopped in their tracks as they heard him chuckle.

"You kids aren't half bad, you know? Surviving this long. But don't worry," he told them. "It will all be over soon." He flashed forward faster than any of them anticipated and he dug his elbow deep into Konohamaru's gut, knocking the boy over and making him gasp for oxygen.

He turns to look at the young black haired girl who was now shivering with fear as he started to shiver with excitement. He notices that the blond is kind of standing away from her, so there is no way that he could save her hide this time. "Always take out the weakest link first to lower the morale of a group," he announces, charging towards Shizune, preparing to kill the girl.

Just two feet from the girl, when the man was in perfect striking range, he swung his sword down diagonally, so that it would it take the girl at the throat. The last thing the any of them expected was for a blond boy to appear before the girl, to protect her from the sword. Lightning blazing and crackling, the sword passed cleanly through the boy's right bicep and bone, completely severing the arm.

The arm fell to the ground and a mighty, blood curdling scream pierced the air. Naruto was in absolute agony. His arm had just been hacked off and he was looking at his now lifeless limb, laying at the ground before his feet. He really had no idea what to do, so he tried throwing a wild and wide punch at the man. The man must have been in complete shock from Naruto suddenly appearing there because the punch had landed, hitting the man directly in the stomach. The man briefly had the air knocked out of him, but that was all of the time it took. Two men appeared in front of Naruto, one with spiky blond hair and another with long black hair tied into a pony tail. The blond man had a small blue sphere in his hand that he drove into the kidnapper's abdomen, the sound of flesh tearing apart filling the air. Blood, skin, and pieces of organ were flung around everywhere as the man was thrown back into a wall. Even though he was not dead, he was not going to be getting up anytime soon. As an extra precaution, the man with the black hair called for someone named Hizashi, who entered the area just moments after Minato and himself, and told him to take the man's body to the Torture and Interrogation Force, wanting as much information out of the man as possible.

Minato was getting ready to congratulate his son for stalling the man when he noticed that something was wrong and terrible with Naruto. Naruto was on his knees, clutching at his now bloody stump and crying out. Shizune was now on her knees beside him, a look of pure horror on her face with her hand covering her mouth with some of Naruto's blood splashed unto her face. Minato paled, running over to Naruto and scooping his son into arms. He grabbed Naruto's bloody arm and the two of them disappeared in a flash of yellow light. Hiashi saw the blood splattered on the ground and on Shizune's face and saw the pained body of Konohamaru.

"Come on, let's get you two to the hospital," Hiashi said to the scarred girl, leaning over Konohamaru, striking a couple of pressure points on him to relieve him of his pain, and picking up Hinata before beginning to walk off in the direction of the hospital.

* * *

"TSUNADE! I NEED TSUNADE!" Minato screamed as loud as his frightened voice would let him. "My boy..."

Tsunade walked into the lobby grumbling about impatient patients until she saw the bloody body of Naruto and an unattached tiny arm. The pieces fit together in her mind and acting on pure instinct, she ran over to Minato, took Naruto from him, and ran into an operating room, not wanting to heal the poor boy when so many bystanders could get in the way. The door shut behind her and she immediately went to work, her hands glowing with a low green light. Sure, she knew that the Shōsen Jutsu was a little much to do over a missing limb, but she literally had no idea how much blood the boy had lost. It was a stroke of fate that Minato brought Naruto to her when he did.

Once Naruto's body stopped pouring blood from the wound, she went to a medicine cabinet right next to the operating bed and took out a small bottle of pills, shaking it to see how much was left in it. She pulled out a dark red pill, so dark that it was almost black, and deftly placed it within Naruto's mouth, massaging the boy's throat to help him swallow. Almost instantly did the pill's properties begin to work. Naruto's already pale face had taken on his original shade, showing that his blood level was back to normal. She placed a glowing green hand over Naruto's bloody stump to clean off the excess blood and grabbed a needle and thread and began to expertly stitch the boy's wound close.

About a minute later, Tsunade sat back and examined her work, nodding in approval at the now partially healed wound. She got out some ointment and began to apply it to the stump, shaking her head somberly. It was great that Naruto was alive, but now, this was truly going to hinder his progress in becoming a shinobi. She did not even know if he would be able to push through all of this and become a shinobi.

"_Let's hope,"_ Tsunade thought to herself as tears filled her eyes.

* * *

Random thoughts passed through his mind. What...how...what was going on? Broken sequences of memories, fragments of shattered flashbacks. He had no way to control all of this useless information pouring into his mind. And before he could even think about the next set of fragments or what was coming next, an extremely bright light filled his landscape. His dream played back to him as if he was actually living the life of the man in the dream.

_It has been so many years..._

_50..._

_75..._

_100..._

_The old man had lost count by now. So many years have passed since the end of the Fourth Shinobi World War. The battle was far too devastating to even think about. When the Jūbi was finally released and performed its perfect Bijūdama, the result was too much for the man to handle. He watched as all of his comrades who were in the line of devastation of the attack were instantly vaporized. Sakura, Lee, Shikamaru, and even Hinata... All were lost in that single attack. And to make matters worse, just when Sasuke finally had a change of heart, he appeared just before the man, along with Minato, Hiruzen, Hashirama, and Tobirama, but they too were destroyed. The Edo Tensei stood no match for true power. And that was all that the man had remembered of that moment. His vision began to fade and the last image he remembered seeing was of Uchiha Madara and Uchiha Obito smirking down at him._

_Sometime later, the man finally woke up, and he found himself in the middle of a village with dozens of villagers, mostly farmers. All of them were trying to keep their distance from him and he when he finally began to stir, all of those surrounding him began to scream and shout, scattering like roaches. The man tried to call out to them, to stop them, but only a weak wheeze and gurgle escaped his throat. _

_He tried pushing himself up, but quickly realized that he was lying on top of some unstable surface. He moved his head slightly to chance what he was laying upon, and he instantly regretted that action. Underneath him were dozens of bodies. Humans and animals. Men, women, and children. All of the bodies were broken and mangled and he instantly got sick to his stomach, quickly getting himself to his feet so he can get rid of whatever contents he had within his stomach away from the bodies. _

_After a good moment of heaving up solids and liquids, the man then glanced down at the puddle of vomit he produced and his face paled as he saw the tip of a finger sticking up from the puddle near his feet. With shaky hands, he reached down to see if it truly was a finger._

_Just as he was about to pick up the said finger, an elderly man came out of a hut and tossed a rock at the back of the man's head. "Leave my village, monster! Haven't you caused enough trouble?!" the man screeched at the man, before turning and running back inside of his hut. _

_The bleeding on the back of his head was forgotten as his mind focused on a solitary word the man had just used._

**Monster**

"What could I possibly have done to deserve that?!" _he thought to himself hysterically._

_But then a sequence of random, broken memories started to push their way into the man's skull._

Obito helping him to his feet, with a soft smile on his face. "Join us. Peace will follow, I assure you of this."

Trees flashing in his peripherals as he chased after a group of terrified people. When he caught up to them, he literally tore them apart and began to ingest their flesh.

Looking behind himself and seeing giant, red tails smashing buildings and whipping up giant dust clouds as his tails slammed into the ground.

Seeing a woman cower before him as she placed herself between him and her infant daughter, the young girl crying as a clawed hand reached and slapped the woman, the force of the impact causing the woman's head to turn all the way around. Slowly, he crept toward the little girl.

A long stream of fire begin sent into a giant forest. Several animals ran out, crying as the intense flames burned off their fur and proceeded to melt their skin.

Seeing the Hokage monument being crushed to debris as a giant red paw gently swatted at the stone structure, crumbling as if it was a sock.

_The man's hands were on his head as the memories assaulted him. His head was spinning as he came to the conclusion of what he actually did. There was nothing that he could do now, though. So, he did all that he could do._

_He screamed._

_A strangled scream escaped his tortured throat. Ah, such a pitiful scream. Such power and emotion was put behind it. The villagers that were listening to the scream felt an ancient part of them shiver, knowing that this was scream was of something ancient and feral. With a flash of light, the man was gone._

_For years and years, he walked the world alone, seeking the peace that he knew he had fought for for such a long time. He would take time out of his days to sit and meditate, but when he would sit in silence, his mind not focusing on searching, a beast would rise within him. It was not Kurama, since he believed Kurama to be dead. No, it was something much more terrible and great. It frightened him. It made his skin crawl and sent chills down his spine. But he had to figure out what it was. He had to. _

_For several more years, this man searched far and wide for anything that could possibly help him figure out what this...demon was that possessed him, what this thing was that caused him so much pain and agony. He searched for any population that was willing to talk to him, so he could at least gain the full story of what his actions were after the war. But no human would listen to him. All would run away in fear, screaming something about either a monster or a demon. _

_He even tried to gain entrance into his old village and upon seeing that there were no shinobi around, his heart sank. He tried to ask a random villager something but received the same reaction as all others. With nowhere left to turn, he simply left. He began to head to the West, hoping that there was someone, or something, that would finally be able to help him out in his quest for the answer._

* * *

The dream abruptly ends as a series of soft, quiet, and annoying pings entered Naruto's ears. He wanted to get up to stop whatever was making that blasted noise, but for some reason, his body felt much more heavy than it usually did. He tried to open his eyes, but quickly found that his eye lids were just as heavy as his body was.

"_Am I dead?"_ was the first thought that came to his mind, before a small sliver of light broke through his darkness, and he was finally able to take in his surroundings.

He briefly inspected the room he was laying down in. The light was accentuated with stark, white curtains. In fact, everything in the room was white and light seemed to radiate off of everything. Naruto was confused. He had no idea how he managed to end up inside of this room and when he tried to remember the last thing he was doing, his dream was painted so vividly in his mind. The thoughts and feelings from that dream shook Naruto to his very core. He did not know how, however he felt like he personally knew all of the people that the man in the dream was grieving about. It was extremely depressing. He attempted to hit his head with left arm, though after a moment, he felt that he was not doing any hitting with his left arm. He looked over at his left arm and saw nothing amiss, as he was situated underneath a dark blue blanket, tucked in rather tightly. He threw the blanket off of him with his right and tried to get out of his bed on the left side. Just as he was about to lean over, he realized that he would not be able to support himself, but it was too late. Naruto fell out of the bed, landing on his now stump of an arm, accidentally putting all of his weight on it.

A sharp pain shot through his body and he screamed out, the pain being far too much for him to handle. He looked down and saw a small trickle of blood dripping from his now bandaged and bloody stump. He looked confused. _"Where is my arm?"_

He was about to scream out again when the doors to his room swung open revealing Tsunade standing in the entrance way, a look of fright on her face. Her eyes fell unto Naruto and they softened immediately. "What are you doing, falling out of bed and messing up your already injured self?" she scolded the boy, lifting him gently and plopping him back down onto his bed. "Look at you! You managed to re-open the wound! To think that I just left this room 15 minutes ago!" she cried, tearing off the bandages and deftly applying some new clean ones to Naruto's wound.

"Um...Bā-chan...what happened to me? Wh-where's my arm?" the boy stuttered out as he felt a stinging sensation on where his arm was _supposed _to be.

"W-well," she began shakily, "if what your father told me is true, you, Konohamaru, and Shizune managed to stall-" she was interrupted as Naruto jolted up in his bed.

"Konohamaru! Shizune! Are they all right?! Did they get hurt?! Where are they?! What about the girl?! Did the man get away?!" the little boy cried out, some tears springing to his eyes.

Tsunade began to shine with pride at the child in front of her. _"He has just lost an arm and the only thing he can think about are others in a better condition than he."_

"They are all fine, Naru-chan, and Hiashi-sama sends his thanks to you. Without you finding out about the kidnapping, we're afraid that they would have been far from Konoha before anyone would notice," Tsunade told the boy gently. "Now, apparently, all Minato could remember of the incident was that he arrived, severely injured the man, and saw you. He saw that your...arm was missing and quickly brought you here." She took a large gulp of air down, obviously shaken up a bit by this boy's injury. "I had to kick both him and your mother out because I was afraid that they would have woken you up." She finished bandaging his wound and ran a glowing green palm over the stump.

"How long have I been sleeping for?" Naruto asked, innocently.

"Just two days. The first day I kept you sleeping due to your blood loss and the second day I removed the coma from you and decided that you would wake up when you wanted to." She flashed the young Namikaze a smile, before quickly standing up and walking over towards the door. She stopped, frozen in her tracks when Naruto asked her a question she was not looking forward to answering.

So quiet, to the point where most would have to strain to hear, he asked, "Bā-chan...do you think I'll still be able to become a shinobi?"

Tsunade's heart broke from the fear that was obviously evident in the boy's voice. She turned to him and shakily answered. "I honestly do not know yet, Naru-chan. But I'm sure we'll have an answer after you complete your physical therapy. I need to go. I have some other patients to attend to."

She quickly left and Naruto began to fall into a pit of depression. Losing his arm was a lot worse than he could have imagined. His future was at stake. It was his dream...no...his _destiny _to become a shinobi so that he could protect his village and family, but now, that was taken away from him. He was about to completely breakdown and cry when the door swung back open, revealing a boy with short spiky hair. The boy had bandages covering his stomach and had a splint holding up his right arm. Apparently, whatever the man hit him with and they way he fell caused more damage than should have been necessary. The boy smiled at Naruto and waved his uninjured arm at him. Four more children walked in, all of them surrounding Naruto's bed, except for the girl, who decided to distance herself away from the group, standing in a corner.

"Heyo! How ya holding up?" Konohamaru asked his best friend, walking over and observing the stump.

"Whoa, that looks cool!" Shiho announced to Naruto, examining the stump from beside her cousin.

"Not so bad, now. I was...kind of upset for a bit, but you all just made it much better," Naruto told them, all smiling at them.

"It's good to see you awake, Naruto," Chōji spoke up, smiling at his first true friend.

"Haven't seen you in awhile, Chō. What have you been up to?" Naruto conversed.

"Oh, you know...just eating," the chubby boy replied, earning laughs from everyone in the room except for Shizune.

"So, you sure you're all right, Konohamaru?" Naruto asks the brown haired boy, who just looks at his boy and laughs.

"It's going to take more than an elbow to the gut and a broken arm to keep the mighty Sarutobi blood at bay!" the boy declared, pumping his fist in the air.

Itachi smiled at this and smiled at Naruto before speaking. "I have some great news for all of us." Everyone's attention shifted to the usually quiet boy. "Well, thanks to Naruto finding out about the kidnapping and me running into Chōji and Shiho on the way to the Hokage Mansion during their meeting and the three of us telling Hokage-sama and Hiashi-sama, they both vouched that upon stalling the kidnapping of Lady Hinata that it would be treated as an A-Rank mission. The Hokage will pay everyone after he makes sure Naruto is all right, I'm sure." After Itachi finished that, Konohamaru, Shiho, and Chōji all whooped for cheer. Chōji and Shiho were really lucky that Itachi just happened to run into them on his way to warn the Hokage. But Itachi did almost get lost on the way to mansion and the two of them did set him back on the right course...

"But that's not all. After speaking with all of our parents and guardians, Hokage-sama has decided to give us all an honorary genin rank. It pretty much just means that we won't have to attend the academy like other children, but we have to wait until we are all at least 9 before we can be placed unto a team," Itachi finished, excitement filling his voice. He reached behind his back and pulled out a leaf forehead protector matted on a black cloth. His trembling hands showed everyone in the room and loud cheers erupted from everyone (excluding Shizune).

Chōji, Shiho, and Konohamaru were practically bouncing off of the walls, celebrating their newly attained ranks. Naruto was bouncing up and down in his bed as excitement filled him as well. That was until his eyes finally fell onto Shizune. The girl was looking down at her feet, purposefully avoiding everyone's eyes, and especially Naruto's. Naruto motioned for his friends to stop celebrating and he pointed at Shizune. All of them shrugged as Naruto spoke up. "Is everything all right, Shizune?" he asked her, concern burning from his question.

She took a chance and glanced up into Naruto's deep eyes, and all Naruto saw from her onyx eyes was fear and shame and regret. She flinched when Naruto moved slightly and suddenly broke down into tears. Naruto tried to get up again to go and comfort his friend, but just like the first time he got he up, he fell over like a newborn foal. He cried out in surprise and was able to avoid landing on his stump. Shizune looked panicked as she ran over to Naruto and threw her arms around him, sobbing into the boy's left shoulder.

Random mutters of sorry and other gibberish that Naruto could make out to be "So ashamed" and "Will repay" escaped the young girl's mouth. Naruto tried to hug her, but awkwardly realized that he only had one arm. So, he pat Shizune's back, telling her that she had nothing to worry about, that if he was the one who froze up, he was sure that she would have done the same for him. But that did not help at all. It just made the young girl cry even. Naruto seemed to be pressed up against a wall until Tsunade came in to check on her patient and to find her other missing patient, Konohamaru. She grabbed one boy by the ear, picked the other one up, and told Shizune to go and wait outside.

After everyone was situated, Tsunade stepped up to her adopted daughter and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Listen, sweetie," she began, showing a rare sweet side, "there are times during missions where people get really hurt, but you're going to have to learn to live through all of that. I've seen my fair share of death and...wounds I couldn't stop. But if you're just going to cry every time someone gets hurt, then you're just going to be a burden to everyone around you."

Shizune looked up at her "mother" and knew that this was her way of trying to comfort her. She nodded and smiled back at the woman, who returned a smile.

"Good. Now that you understand, follow me. I have a surgery to perform and I want you to take notes, my little kunoichi."

* * *

Konohamaru managed to sneak out of his bed again and went back into Naruto's room. Yeah, he still had large amounts of electricity screwing up his motor skills and a broken arm, but the adrenaline of performing the Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was still running through him and he felt like he just could not sit still.

"That was pretty intense, Konohamaru," Naruto told the boy after he took a seat on the edge of Naruto's bed. "When did you learn how to do that?"

"One day, I saw jījī perform it while he was practicing his chakra control. Except he brought forth like...1000 shuriken and completely destroyed his training dummy. I asked him if he could teach me and he said that I was ready," Konohamaru smiled proudly. "I'm just glad he taught me one of his best techniques."

"Me, too. I was so amazed when I saw you perform it," Naruto finished somewhat somberly.

This did not go unnoticed by Konohamaru. "What's wrong, man?"

"It's just...I'm not sure if I'll ever become a shinobi now. Even Bā-chan doesn't know if I'll be able to handle it all," Naruto told him, exasperatedly. "How am I supposed to have faith if one of the strongest shinobi in the world doesn't even know?"

"Why are you placing your destiny in someone's hands that aren't yours?" Konohamaru asked the boy, getting to his feet. "I remember when I was younger, my mother was trying to get me started with shinobi training. She was a great sensory type and she would look over me as I practiced bringing out my chakra. But every time she looked for my chakra, there was none there. She told me, almost certainly, that I would never become a shinobi and that I was a disgrace to the Sarutobi family."

Naruto looked up at his friend with hurt eyes. He had no idea that that was the reason his best friend was living with jījī.

"She gave me away, or rather, she just left me there in my room one night. Both her and my father had left while I was sleeping and left nothing behind except the bed I was sleeping in and the blanket that kept me warm. There was no note, not a single scrap of food, nothing. I was almost certain that I would die there, being so young and not able to fend for myself. That was until I found out what the real problem was.

"It was not me. It was my mother. She was one of those power hungry types that only see things for what they could do for yourself. I set down a new resolve to find my chakra, to bring it forth, and to prove her wrong. I vowed to not let anyone get put down the same way I was put down. I will become the strongest shinobi and protects those that I love! That is my nindō!" Konohamaru finished triumphantly, standing with his arm outstretched and pointing at Naruto. "Now, don't you let anyone put you down and tell you that you can't become a shinobi! Only you are in control of your destiny!"

Naruto got out of his bed, perfectly without any fault and stood at his full height in front of Konohamaru. A deep pool of inspiration and awe filled him and he felt like he was on the verge of crying, but he decided to hold it back. He swung out his right arm, Konohamaru doing the same thing. They both clasped each others forearm, locking the warrior's shake into place. They both had a look of determination in their eyes as Konohamaru broke the shake.

"Now, get some rest. Jījī and I will convince your parents to teach you _real _stuff once you're out of here," Konohamaru told Naruto, waving at him while walking out of the door.

Naruto climbed back into his bed and pulled the sheets over his body to the best of his abilities. Once he was settled he looked up at the ceiling with determination and power shining from his eyes.

_I WILL NOT GIVE UP _

A/N: Pretty nice chapter, eh? It took awhile to get through this one because most of it is recycled from my last version of this since this is one of my favorite chapters. Now we have a stumpy Naruto. Let's hope everything will work out for him! Oh, and sorry for making that conversation a little too mature. I really don't know how to write a kid's conversation. Ha

Translations

******Fūin! - Seal!**

******Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! - Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!**


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